MBFAAO 5: One Song Astonishes All

The guitar strings seemed as if they were suddenly startled, lightly leaking out a string of musical notes.

Liu Zifeng frowned. At the very beginning, there was obvious clumsiness and the rhythm was wrong.

However, he gradually sat up straight from his half-paralyzed slump, listening to the stage with fixed attention.

Concierto de Aranjuez—it really is?!

One of the top ten classical guitar pieces, and also one of the world’s top three guitar concertos, the difficulty of playing it is extremely high. It doesn’t just need fingering and superb technique, it even more so needs the player’s rich emotional expression.

Concentrating and listening closely, Liu Zifeng acutely heard the flaws at the beginning.

A few strings of notes seemed uncoordinated and dry, but as he continued to listen, his complexion actually became increasingly solemn.

The complexion of Huang Yi beside him was just as spectacular.

—Good heavens. If they say that right at the beginning it was still a bit clumsy, now this increasingly skillful, increasingly beautiful guitar sound, where on earth did it come from?!

The most important thing is, even in the playing that seemed slightly clumsy at the very beginning, it could be heard to contain a deep, rich emotion.

This piece has always been known for its blending of sweetness and sorrow. Many people can play it with skillful technique but are unable to grasp the emotional expression well.

Liu Zifeng thought somewhat dazedly, Among the guitar players in his own studio, is there anyone who can reach this kind of standard?

No, no, there isn’t!

The light and clean guitar sound gradually gripped everyone.

Strings of intoxicating melodies flowed out from the expensive live speakers. Although there was no orchestral accompaniment, it still perfectly presented all the techniques a guitar solo should have—a faint sorrow was flowing, condensing, and surging.

“F*ck! Camera two, quickly cut to a close-up of his fingers, don’t just film his face!” The head videographer cursed angrily in a low voice, “We’re not just face dog audience, give some professional shots!”

The cameraman of camera two responsible for close-ups woke up as if from a dream. They hurriedly moved the lens away from the youth’s exquisitely beautiful face, and rapidly cut to his playing fingers.

On the big screen, as soon as the image of the slender, fair hands came out, the live audience simultaneously let out a series of gasps.

Isn’t it too good-looking? This is definitely a massive perk for hand-fetishists!

There are thousands and millions of good-looking hands, but there are not many pairs of hands that can elegantly pluck the strings and produce such a beautiful performance like this!

Liu Zifeng in the front sat with his spine perfectly straight, staring intently at the fingering on the screen.

Huang Yi beside him blankly opened her mouth, even failing to care about her own elegant image.

In the back row, Qin Xiaofeng and Zheng Qingqing stretched their necks so much they were about to become giraffes, staring at the rapid plucking and skillfully executed playing on the big screen.

In the contestants’ waiting hall behind the stage, all the contestants were dumbfounded and dead silent.

In the entire venue, there was no more whispering, nor singing and hot dancing, leaving only the quiet melody flowing.

The youth on the screen had a calm side profile, his fingers nimbly plucking, strings of sorrowful notes scattering like bird feathers.

…As the song ended, the close-up on the big screen froze on Cheng Yan’s hands. His originally steady fingers actually started to tremble slightly at this moment.

All around was dead silent, as if a pause button had been pressed.

Qin Xiaofeng, in the stretch of silence, suddenly reached out and wiped her own face—it was wet.

“I just felt uncomfortable listening. Why, why am I crying?” she muttered, and embarrassedly wiped it quickly.

Beside her, Zheng Qingqing’s eye rims were also red.

Yeah! Why, a tomboy like her, unexpectedly also inexplicably wanted to cry!

Not knowing how long after, in the quiet venue, Liu Zifeng in the first row took the lead to applaud.

Immediately following, Huang Yi closed her red lips that had been open for a long time and began to elegantly follow suit.

More and more applause quickly joined in, converging into an ocean of enthusiasm at the live recording site!

“My god! Who on earth is this! It can’t be that Cheng Yan, right?” Someone cried out in a low voice, “Ah, I like him so much!”

The boy beside him couldn’t help turning his head to voice his opinion. “I think it’s the same person. I’ve watched his previous funny videos quite a few times, although…”

He stuttered a bit, “Although the difference looks huge, the face shape, eyes, and body shape are indeed his.”

Qin Xiaofeng muttered, “Is this a big ultimate move intentionally released by the program crew? Staging a metamorphosis?”

Zheng Qingqing suddenly saw the light. “So that’s how it is! He can’t sing and can’t dance, but he can play super difficult classical guitar!”

She grabbed her little companion beside her in one motion. “The program crew must have intentionally created this kind of reversal effect. So scheming!”

Qin Xiaofeng looked at the stage dazedly. “So what if he can’t sing? So what if he can’t dance? Whatever the reason, I’ve decided.”

“What?”

“From today onwards, I dual-stan Tongtong and Cheng Yan!”

…On stage, Cheng Yan, hearing the thunderous applause from offstage, finally stood up. He bowed deeply towards the audience offstage.

His slightly trembling hands finally steadied, and the sourness in his eye sockets was also contained. When he raised his head again, no one could see the crystalline tears in his eyes that were about to burst out for a moment.

It had been over ten years. After that life-destroying accident, although his severed fingers were successfully reattached, their flexibility was already far worse than before.

His beloved classical guitar could almost no longer be played to sound right, but fortunately, he never gave up.

In every lonely and desperate night, even if the sound of the guitar was broken and his fingers were stiff, he still stubbornly practiced over and over again.

However, the powerless fingers still dragged him down.

No matter how crazily he practiced, he could never play the feeling he wanted again.

In this moment of suddenly regaining normalcy, the fingers of this body, as if having the binding sandbags loosened, became nimble and free. It was as if it was dancing and jumping for joy on the guitar strings.

All memories came surging in. At this moment, everything seemed like a rebirth from the ashes, the old days returning.

As if he really stood once again on that stage from many years ago.

…

The spotlight dimmed. Cheng Yan retreated to the side of the stage and disappeared to the back.

The host awakened from a brief daze. He saw at a glance the flustered and exasperated gestures of the head director offstage, and his heart gave a “thump” sound. Oh no, my live reaction today is no good! In such an unexpected scene, I should have grabbed the contestant, and interviewed him properly on stage!

He secretly felt annoyed at his own lack of professionalism, and hurried to remedy it.

“Let’s first interview the judges offstage!” He rapidly asked Liu Zifeng, “As a record producer, what do you think of this contestant’s performance?”

Liu Zifeng let out a long breath, finally waking up a bit from the shock.

His expression was serious. “At the beginning, he was probably nervous so there were quite a few flaws and the starting pitch wasn’t accurate.”

Changing his tone, his voice became passionate. “However, he later quickly recovered his standard—very good, exceptionally good! His technique was skilled, he must have studied it painstakingly. Most importantly, the emotional expression was accurate. Being able to blend emotion in so well at this age, his talent is extremely high!”

Huang Yi on the side also couldn’t help chiming in, “Yes, this is a very famous classical guitar concerto composed by composer Rodrigo sixty years ago, depicting the small town of Aranjuez in Madrid, which was also the former summer palace of the Bourbon dynasty—it’s very beautiful. Typical Spanish style, sweet and sorrowful, this contestant performed it really well.”

The host echoed repeatedly, “Although I don’t quite understand classical guitar, I think I can similarly feel it.”

After expressing a whole bunch of thoughts on stage, he finally enthusiastically started to remind them.

“The electronic voting machines have opened the voting channels. Everyone has three votes, so now please treat them cautiously and cast the top three in your hearts, then each judge teacher’s one vote counts as ten votes. The final top ten will be today’s winners!”

In the last row, Qin Xiaofeng and Zheng Qingqing looked at each other. They both suddenly became hesitant.

No matter how they put it, the ultimate winners chosen on this stage are all those excelling in singing and dancing. This little brother sings out of tune and dances terribly; if he is only good at playing the guitar, it seems it doesn’t quite fit the requirements of the stage, right?

“What do we do? The program crew repeatedly exhorted us to be fair and just.”

Zheng Qingqing steeled her heart. “I don’t care, I am a face-obsessed dog. I want to choose him! Besides, playing an instrument is also a talent!”

Qin Xiaofeng nodded softly. “Mm, I also want to see him come out for one more episode—just one episode is fine.”

…

Cheng Yan, holding the guitar, walked in front of a musician waiting behind the stage.

“Thank you for your guitar, Teacher Wu.”

He was the last one to perform. When he walked into the waiting hall, the youths inside the door were all dead quiet, watching him enter and sit in a corner, their expressions were all a bit complex.

Zhou Yunying, looking even more surprised, walked to his side and sat down. He hesitated again and again. “Xiao Cheng, to think you were actually still holding back a big ultimate move?”

Cheng Yan raised his head, smiling without speaking.

Beside him, Ya Yilun suddenly stuck his head over, and threw an arm around his shoulders. “Couldn’t tell—f*cking awesome. I like it!”

He grinned widely, continuously laughing at Cheng Yan. He even stuck out a thumb to give him a thumbs-up.

A contestant with dyed eye-catching blonde hair named Pan Yu, who sang hip-hop, also curiously poked his head over. “You are so amazing! I also learned a bit of guitar in the past. The basics are simple, but playing well is really not easy. You play really well.”

“Yes, classical guitar is much harder to learn than folk guitar!”

They were all youths in their teens and twenties. According to the registration requirements, the oldest was no more than 25 years old. Although a competitive relationship existed among them, after all, they mostly had youthful temperaments. Originally seeing that Cheng Yan had absolutely no skills and an unlikable personality, they naturally didn’t like to interact with him.

However, suddenly seeing a side worthy of admiration, the vast majority of people still showed friendliness.

In the middle of the large sofa, Tongtong boredly half-leaned his body, still wearing his performance outfit. His palm-sized face was buried in the snow-white fur collar, and his pair of cold eyes glanced at Ya Yilun, who was hugging Cheng Yan.

“Hehe.”

This sound made people feel uncomfortable listening to it. Zhou Yunying furrowed his brows, leaning close to Cheng Yan’s ear. “Ignore him—he and Ya Yilun don’t get along.”

Amidst the tense waiting, finally, staff members waved for them to line up and go out. The electronic vote counting had ended, and the time to announce the top 20 to 10 had arrived!

On the bright stage, they stood according to the rankings of the previous off-site online voting. The center C-positions¹Short for “Center position.” In idol groups and stage performances, standing in the exact middle is highly coveted as it signifies being the most important, popular, or visually central member. were Tongtong and Ya Yilun, while Cheng Yan stood quietly on the far edge of the very last row.

The host, holding the newly received envelope, began to announce the results. The young audience offstage held their breath one by one, deeply afraid that the contestants they liked wouldn’t be among them.

“Today, we are giving everyone a surprise—how about we start announcing from the highest votes?” The host smiled slyly. “First place: Ya Yilun! 278 votes!”

At a time like this, the top few places had almost no suspense. Popular contestants would definitely smoothly be selected into the top ten, so there was no need to reveal the top three last.

On the contrary, who gets eliminated and who will nervously stay behind at the bottom is the most watchable part. Therefore, the program crew was very scheming, choosing to put those with the worst votes at the very end.

With this, it directly triggered a small upset²An idiom used in competitions meaning an unexpected outcome or a surprising upset where the underdog wins against the favorite.. Ya Yilun, with his energetic singing and hot dancing, turned the tables for the first time, surpassing the consistently slightly leading Tongtong?!

• 1
  Short for “Center position.” In idol groups and stage performances, standing in the exact middle is highly coveted as it signifies being the most important, popular, or visually central member.
• 2
  An idiom used in competitions meaning an unexpected outcome or a surprising upset where the underdog wins against the favorite.